Make tourists disappear… in Photoshop
jmeyer | Tutorials | 18/05/2012 16:15pmHow many times has your travel photography been let down by tourists and other unwanted distractions spoiling your scenes?
No need to waste your pictures. Our simple 4-step tutorial below explains how you can remove people in Photoshop and rescue your images.
Bleach bypass: how to make extreme portraits
jmeyer | Tutorials | 16/05/2012 08:00amPhotographic styles and digital darkroom effects certainly aren’t immune to the whims of fashion and changing tastes. Whether it’s trendy cross-processing, HDR (High Dynamic Range) tweaks or shooting contre-jour (into the light), flick through the editorial and ad pages of any glossy magazine and you’ll see what’s currently in vogue. The muted colours, exaggerated contrast and super-detailed characteristics of what is known as the bleach bypass effect are very popular at the moment.
Photoshop Tricks: age progression made easy
jmeyer | Tutorials | 15/05/2012 10:34amIf you’re curious about how you’ll look in 30 years’ time, then this Photoshop tutorial is for you! Here we will show you how to mimic age progression in Photoshop.
]The process is made simpler by borrowing some age details from another face. We’ll grab some of the dark colour of wrinkles from an older man and blend them into our model’s face. We’ll borrow some eyebrows, too, and use small brush strokes to add some longer eyebrow hairs.
Additionally, we’ll alter the skin colour to give the portrait a more sallow and aged look, then use the Liquify filter to enlarge some elements on the face that grow larger with age such as the nose and ears. Lips will be thinned, and the hairline receded.
Add colour to a black and white photo
jmeyer | Tutorials | 14/05/2012 16:07pmHand-colouring of photographs first became popular in the 20th century, as a means of adding realism to black-and-white photos. Different types of paint were applied using fingers, brushes and swabs.
However, we can now achieve a similar effect in Photoshop and add colour to a black and white photo using the Brush tool. Whereas the traditional hand-painters only got one attempt, we can use layers to keep each colour separate and delete any hues we don’t like.
101 Photoshop tricks you have to know
jmeyer | Tutorials | 11/05/2012 08:00amAre your photo editing skills a little on the slow side? Could your Photoshop knowledge be better? If so, you’re in the right place. Below we’ve culled from experts 101 of the best Photoshop tips and tricks you need to streamline your photo editing skills and start working faster and smarter.
We’ve broken our list down into categories of Quick tips, Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge tips, Tips for using Layers, Tips for using Photoshop’s many tools and, finally, Tips for using Brushes. We hope our round-up of cunning techniques, shortcuts and cool effects gives you the help you need, and if you have a suggestion for something we missed… let us know!
20 tips for faster photo editing
jmeyer | Tutorials | 09/05/2012 15:18pmWant to take your photo editing skills to the next level? We take a look at 20 essential tips that will have you working faster and smarter with Photoshop in no time. We cover everything you need to know – how to import and organise your photo; getting more from raw files; adding impact to your images; and the secrets of retouching creatively. Whether this is your first foray into photo editing or you need to fine-tune your techniques, this is your essential guide.
How to create the famous iPod silhouette
jmeyer | Tutorials | 07/05/2012 07:00amFrom the classic opening credits of the James Bond films to Apple’s original iPod campaign, silhouettes have proven they can be the basis for powerful and iconic imagery.
Traditionally, the easiest way to shoot a silhouette was to place the subject against a bright background or backlight and expose for the brighter regions of the image. This plunges the subject into darkness, silhouetting them against the background.
Here, we’re going to show you a technique that partially silhouettes the model, with the shot taken so that a small amount of light just helps to pick out some of the facial features, giving the subject the look of the famous iPod silhouette.
Turn your photos into Banksy graffiti
jmeyer | Tutorials | 05/05/2012 08:00amUrban graffiti has moved on from simple tagging to witty stencil work, thanks largely to the efforts of artists such as Banksy in turning it from an eyesore into a legitimate art form.
You can use Photoshop’s Threshold adjustment to turn any photograph into pure black and white, which is the ideal way of representing a stencil. It’s possible to drag the Threshold slider to different locations to vary the balance between black and white, but it’s rare that you’ll find an image that works perfectly right across its tonal range. That’s why it makes so much more sense to apply Threshold as an Adjustment Layer. This allows you to tinker with the underlying image until the light/dark contrast works perfectly in all areas.
6 tips for making subtle HDR photos
jmeyer | Tutorials | 04/05/2012 08:00amEssentially, there are two reasons for making HDR photos. First, as a photographer you often experience lighting conditions that have a higher dynamic range than your sensor is capable of recording in one gulp, so HDR photos capture and compress the brightness range.Done well, no-one will ever know it’s an HDR.
The second reason that you would use HDR is for the look — to boost the colours and contrast of a dull subject or to give your image a grungy feel. With these reasons in mind, lets take a look at 6 ways you can make HDR photos that are subtle and spectacular.
Stitch together family photos with the Magnetic Lasso
jmeyer | Tutorials | 01/05/2012 08:15amCapturing a decent family portrait can be a major challenge – particularly if it’s a group photo. For starters, you may not be able to fit everyone into the shot, and even if you can, someone will usually have their eyes closed or be pulling a less than flattering face! By shooting an empty sofa, you can extend it by learning how to stitch photos together in Photoshop to fit in as many people as required, without being limited by your lens or location. In our Photoshop tutorial below we’ll show you how to select a sofa’s sections, move them onto separate layers and transform their position to extend the sofa’s width.
You can then shoot your friends and family one by one in the same spot. This helps you to ensure that everyone is looking their best. By capturing each one under the same lighting conditions they will look like they were all sitting together on the digitally extended sofa.
